When you survive a season of Matt Moore, Jimmy Clausen and Brian St. Pierre, there's supposed a light at the end of the tunnel.

For the Carolina Panthers, the silver lining of losing 14 times in 2010 was earning a No. 1 overall draft pick. But four days after the second-worst season in franchise history mercifully ended in Atlanta, it was almost like the Panthers lost again. Stanford's Andrew Luck, the consensus top pick, announced he was staying in school for his senior season.

Well, it wasn't much of an announcement. It was a one sentence statement:

“I am committed to earning my degree in architectural design from Stanford University and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012."

Now, nearly five years after he turned down the chance of coming to Carolina, Luck will face the team who very well could have drafted him. How much different would the Panthers look right now if that would have happened? For what it's worth, the Colts quarterback claims he doesn't play the 'what if?' game.

"[There's] no point in my mind in playing that game with really anything," Luck said Wednesday on a conference call with Carolina media.

"I think I always just sort of knew I was going to stay in school for four years. And obviously finishing my education was also important to me and I needed to stay an extra year to get that done. I felt like I still needed to grow a lot as a football player and I thought college would still get me that opportunity to grow and learn."

In hindsight, Luck's choice worked out for everyone. The Panthers found their franchise quarterback in Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton, and a year later, Luck went No. 1 to the Colts as Peyton Manning's replacement. But many Panthers fans remain skeptical about Luck's decision to stay in school.

First of all, who turns down at least $20 million in guaranteed money for college buddies and books?

Second, Luck has an influential father like Eli Manning and John Elway, who also starred at Stanford. Manning and Elway were each No. 1 picks who refused to play for the teams that drafted them, so perhaps Luck wasn't even letting it get that far. And not only were the Panthers coming off a two-win season, but their owner was helping protect the shield ahead of the upcoming lockout.

An old wives tale soon formed. Luck just didn't want to come to Carolina.

"I hope people don’t think that," he said.

"I remember talking to my parents about it and it wasn’t a stressful decision. I think, in my mind, I was always going to stay in school for four years and I still had unfinished business at the college, amateur level."

After throwing four touchdowns in Stanford's blowout win over Virginia Tech in the 2011 Orange Bowl, it took Luck all of three days to end speculation of his future with that one sentence statement. That timeline and everything he's said since have given no indication his choice was anything other than wanting to be a college kid for one more year.

"I think I grew up. I matured. I got whatever it is out of my system — whatever that college but itch is out of my system," Luck said. "I think I got better at football. I learned a lot more football.

"And closure. Maybe just wanted some closure that last year."

Now, hopefully, Panthers fans can have some closure as well. They ended up with a pretty good quarterback, one who is currently outplaying Luck. And really, there's no reason to dwell on a relationship that never even started.

It wasn't you, Carolina. It was him.